The rotator cuff is made up of 4 muscles that attach to the ball of the ball and socket joint known as the shoulder. There is a space between the rotator cuff and the bone that lies directly above it. On top of the muscle is a bursa that allows the muscles to glide against the bone easily. When the bursa becomes inflamed it is called bursitis. Here is the shoulder with its 4 muscles. When you lift your arm overhead, there is a tendency for the...

Who gets pec tears? Looking at the numbers, men are much more likely to get pec tears because of the bulk of the muscle and the stiffness associated with muscular hypertrophy in this region. The decreased flexibility can then result in tearing of the muscle or tendon. Just as in most tendon tears people are between age 30 to 50. The most common mechanism is a heavy bench press where the tendon is stretched as the bar comes down to the chest....

Our last post talked about anterior instability of the shoulder especially with dislocations or subluxation events.  I have seen this with overhead squats or snatches. What if someone is loose or unstable in different directions? What are the symptoms that can occur and how does this happen? If someone has loose ligaments then they may have something called multidirectional instability.  Typically this can occur in females from 20 to 50 years...

Just saw this picture from the Games. Reminded me of the all out effort that was seen by tremendous athletes like Alessandra.

Has anyone told you that you are UNSTABLE?  An unstable shoulder can be very dramatic or more often a silent issue that rears its ugly head only in certain situations or movements. Who would have thought that your shoulder could give way on you? What does giving way mean?  People will describe looseness, laxity, a weak feeling, instability, that their shoulder is not in the right place. Normally a shoulder provides stability with ligaments,...

Many people have taken surgery and its recovery for granted. Some think a knee arthroscopy is like getting their teeth cleaned with little recovery time and little inconvenience to people’s schedules and their day to day activity. It was not that long ago where surgery on the knee and its recovery were major surgeries with incisions extending for several inches and cutting into the capsule to get a good look at the joint. For a cartilage tear...

As crossfitters, we’re accustomed to a lot of acronyms… WOD. AMRAP. HSPU. SDHP. TFCC. KBS. MU. Wait, what? One of these things is not like the other. TFCC. Triangular Fibrocartilage Complex What is it? More popularly known as the wrist meniscus; a kind of shock absorber for some of the joints in your wrist. The TFCC can tear with rotational movements, like an awkward fail on a heavy Turkish getup or falling out of a hand stand. What does it do?...